What Happened to our Gingerbread Man?

Gingerbread Houses

Making the gingerbread houses is one of my favorite activities to so in school. The kids have so much fun!  I was also having fun using the pic collage app and made a collage of all the wonderful houses that were made.  Enjoy!

Here are the blue class houses:

And here are the red class houses:

A special thank you for everyone who brought in candy to share and also to the fabulous volunteers!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Blue Class Skating

Here is a video from Mrs. V with the kids skating in the gym.  They were so excited and had a great time!

The Gingerbread Man did it again!

We were already to try a taste of the little gingerbread man when we discovered he was missing!

We searched the whole school but could not find him.  My blue class decided to write about what they think happened to the gingerbread man.  We got the writing part of their story done today, on Thursday we will illustrate our story.  I'll post pictures of the story when it's completed.

The Gingerbread Man is loose in our school!

Today we baked a gingerbread man during snack.  When we went to get him, he was missing!

We went around the school to find our gingerbread man.  We talked to Mrs. Agnew in the library, Mrs V. In the gym, Mrs. Bakke in the music room and Peggie in the office.  All of them saw our gingerbread man running around, but no one could catch him!  We returned to our room and we found a surprise!  The gingerbread man didn't want to be eaten, but he did leave a tasty snack for us instead.

Week of December 9-13th

We are getting closer to our winter break, but still have many things to accomplish yet this month!

In the beginning of the we are focusing on the difference between needs and wants.  We read a story about it, we are going to sort pictures on our Smartboard and then we will do a project about needs and wants.

Later this week, or early next week, we will start listening for the ending sound in words.  We will be doing some sorting with pictures that have the same ending sound.

Our 2 activities for math this week are, learning about the Pan Balance, and playing domino concentration.

In writing, we are going to learn about being good sharing partners during sharing time.  We are also still focusing on leaving spaces between our words.

And last, we will continue to read those gingerbread men stories!  We just finished our chart about the 3 stories we read last week.  We used this chart to learn about the diff end settings and characters.  We also picked our favorites at the end.

What's Next

Here are some things we are working on this week.  I am going to try to add our weekly goals, but keep in mind, things get changed around easily here:)

New Words: on, said

Phonics: we are working on reading our friends names and putting our friends names in order

Math: we are staring number stories and beginnings addition and subtraction.  We tell stories and either act out the stories to figure out the answer or draw out the story to figure out the answer.  We are working with numbers up to 10.  

Writing: we are still working on our 4 star pictures and words, but we are also beginning to write whole stories.  Instead of using one page we are using books and working on telling our story across many pages.

Read Alouds: We started our Gingerbread Man stories yesterday.  As we are reading them, we are writing out the characters and setting.  We are using the gingerbread stories to learn setting and characters but also to work on comparing similar stories.

Red Class Turkey Party!

The red class is celebrating Thanksgiving with a turkey party today.  We did 6 different rotations.

First the kids made turkey hats,

Then they learned about Pilgrims and did one of our weekly readers,

Next they made turkeys out of cookies and candies (hopefully they will make it home for you to see:)

Then they played roll a turkey,

We made a patterned necklace,

And last we played pin the wattle on the turkey!

                                                      Happy Thanksgiving!

Turkey Day!

This morning we had a turkey party in our room.  We made turkey hats,

And patterned necklaces,

Turkeys out of cookies,

Colored a turkey picture,

Played roll a turkey,

And played pin the waddle on the turkey!

Thank you to Jolene and Todd for volunteering!  We couldn't have done it without them!

                                          Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Book Mark Readers

Today we got to listen to the book mark readers.  This was the first time the blue class got to hear from them.  The Book Mark Readers are a group of retired people in the area that go to schools to read in a readers theater style.

The books the kids heard today are:

My Mouth is a Volcano

The Little Engine that Could

Predicting

Being able to predict a story is one of our essential outcomes.  This week we have been reading stories to practice our predicting skills.  Predicting skills would include being able to come up with a reasonable response on what will happen in the story based on what they have already learned.  Take some time to predict while reading stories at home.  Remember to use the word predict when asking your child to guess what will happen next.

We also added some more words to our word wall.  So far we have learned: a, and, are, can, go, here, I, is, like, my, no, see, this, the, to, you.

The more ways you practice these words at home, the more solid they become to the kids!

IPad Minis

Yesterday and today we worked with the cart of iPad minis we have available to our building.  The first task was learning an app called Doodle Buddy.  We used Doodle Buddy to stamp out a picture to a given number.  This trimester we want the students to count out 11 objects.  Using Doodle Buddy was a good way to practice.

The second thing we did was using the camera.  We took a tour of the building and found patterns around our school.  When we got back to the class they sat with a friend to go through their patterns to determine if they found a pattern or not.  We also learned how to use the camera and delete picture in the process.

Writing

Everyday we spend 15 to 20 minutes on writing.  At this time of the year we expect the kids to be able to come up with a story idea and inventive spell part of their story.  This past week we have been talking about making our picture the best it can be.  We started this discussion by learning what charterers and setting are and how they relate to our writing.

We took a day to learn to draw a character for our story and talked about how we can add details to our picture to show our reader the setting.  We each made a picture of ourselves in the classroom.  We worked on adding the correct colors to the characters and the setting.

Next we talked about what a 4 star picture would be.  I gave 4 examples and the kids told me how my characters and setting improved each time.

Although I don't expect the kids to make a picture that is like my example, I do want them to take their time and do their best!  We continue to work on hearing our sounds and writing what we hear.  Writing is an area where there can always be improvements, so encourage your kids to write whenever they want to express themselves.  Lists, notes, stories, are all examples of great ways to begin writing.

Free Math Apps

Our math curriculum, Everyday Math, is offering free apps on iTunes from November 4-8.  These apps are games that students will learn in school in various grades, not all are appropriate for kindergarten.  You usually have to pay for these apps, so grab them while they are free!

Here are the apps that will be free:

Addition Top-It

Monster Squeeze

Equivalent Fractions

Beat the Computer

Divisibility Dash

Book Mark Readers

Today we got to hear Book Mark Readers! These are retired people in the community who love to read.  As they read to the kids, the take different parts and characters. Today we got to hear: Chrysanthemum, If You Take. Mouse to School, and Bully Bear.  The blue group will get a chance to do this later in the year.

Kindergarten Goals

Today I showed the kids our 2 of our kindergarten goals.  We want the kids to know all 52 letters and 26 sounds.  When they are able to tell me either or both, they will add a gum ball to our gum all machine and get to take gum home.  I will check the kids as often as possible, so keep practicing at home!  When all kids meet each of these goals we will celebrate with a popcorn party!  We will be adding a gum ball machine for our sight words too once we get moving with reading.  

Keep encouraging to practice each night!

Kindergarten Sight Words

We have been learning our kindergarten words for a few weeks now.  We have been learning our words by writing them, tracing them and reading them.  We are reading predictable word texts right now and those will begin going home next week.  When your child is reading them at home, make sure they are pointing to the word they are reading.  This skill is really important for beginning readers.

So far we have learned the following words:  a, and, can, I, like, see, this.  Next week we will add: are, the.

Next week I will be starting guided reading, each group will be reading books at their level and will get 1 to 2 books a week.  I attached a copy of our kindergarten sight words, if you would like to get a head start.  There are 40 words we want the students to be able to read by the end of the year.

Thanks for the extra work you do at home!

K Sight Word Flash Cards

At the Fire Station, Blue Class

First we went into the fire hall to listen to Firefighter Ron talk about basic fire safety.  Here are the rules he went over:

1.  When to call 911, only an emergencies

2.  The importance of knowing where you live or your house number/street

3.  Never play with fire

4.  Stop, Drop and Roll

5.  Where is your meeting place?

Firefighter Ron got dressed up in his fire gear to show us what it sounds and looks like.

Next we went to tour the fire trucks.  We leaned what each trucks job is.  We got to sit in their brand new fire truck!  Fun!

We had a great time at the fire department.  The fighters let us know that they are having an open house on Saturday, October 12th from 10:00 to 2:00.  Stop down for a ride, tour and treats!

Fire Safety-Red Class

Today we got to go to the Becker Fire Department.  We first toured the fire trucks and learned that each of the trucks have a job to do.  Firefighter Zach told about each of the them and how they decide which truck to bring.

  

Before we left the fire trucks we got to go into the brand new fire truck! 

Lastly we went into the fire hall room where firefighter Ron talked to us about fire safety.  

We learned:

1. When to call 911

2. Never never play with fire 

3. Stop, drop, and roll

4. Home fire escape plan

Please make sure to take some time to talk to your child about fire safety.  What is your fire escape plan?  Where is your family's meeting place?

Spirit Day!

Today was Becker Bulldog spirit wear day.  We had a lot of red and white running around our school.  Here is my spirited class!

Go Bulldogs!

Blue Class at the Apple Orchard

We had some fantastic weather today at the Apple Jack Apple Orchard and we had a lot of fun!

Here we are lined up and ready to start our day...

Our first activity was to learn how apples go from blossoms to apples.  We learned how important bees are and we had a few volunteers helping out.

Next we got to enjoy a ride around the apple orchard.

Our third stop was the play area.  We got a chance to run, play and see some animals.

Our last stop was apple school.  Again we talked about the different seasons, learned that they have 29 different kinds of apples and got to taste a couple different kinds.

We had a fantastic time at Apple Jack Apple Orchard!